Immortal Souls : Wintereich, brief review

Christian band, paying homage to COB’s early days better than COB did in their own prime. This album is very reminiscent of Children Of Bodom’s Follow The Reaper without any of the flamboyant keys or annoying “WHOOOAAA!” vocals. Going deeper into the album, there are more traits from COB’s later material as well to be heard, but the execution remains straightforward without forgetting the power metal roots. When the instances of modern metal come into play, it really is a drop in quality, but Immortal Shadows don’t let it take over too much. The overall tone is much darker than previous releases, which focused more on hope and inspiration. With Wintereich you could hear more of a sinister backdrop that isn’t noticed through the regular instrumentation, but rather the flow.

You know how the band Archeon semi-sold out and changed their name to Made Of Hate and in turn changed their sound to suit later-COB? Well, this album kind of did the same and in that respect I deem it lower than the previous albums. It’s a more modern direction that many bands get sucked into, and as a result much of the material isn’t too standout. They’re “good,” but there aren’t any tracks that mutilate the rest like “Sacrifice” did on Ice Upon The Night.

You’ll hear metalcore chugging clash with classical leadwork, breakdowns squeezing their way in with the bass closing the door on it, and even drumming trying to stay on top of its game by not relying constantly on blast beats. It’s like a constant battle and I hate to see a band that distinguished itself earlier fall into such a trap. Vocally, the growls are raspy rather than the tough-guy screams that we had on Ice Upon The Night. At that time, though, the music made up for it while here the music is in a civil war while the vocals improved to this deep, raspy growl. Honestly, the more I dig into this album the more I’m just getting American melodic death / metalcore out of it and its pissing me off. What really turned this inside out was on “Black Water” we hear clean vocals, and while this isn’t a new thing, it sure sounds lame when the rest of the album sounds like metalcore.

Bass remains uncharted and true – rumbling on into obscurity while everyone else is fighting. It maintains a rhythm as the killing shows no signs of ending. Hearing the title track at the very end forced me to compare this band The Duskfall, which I know is a Swedish band but they’re pretty much borderline metalcore, too. The only difference is this band is more progressive/power metal based while The Duskfall is Swedish melodic death based.

Yeah, so this isn’t a step in the right direction, even though the cover is pretty damn chilling (the pun sneaked up on me). I’d say skip this and go on with Ice Upon The Night - you’ll actually enjoy that one more than this one that can’t even enjoy itself

Album: Wintereich, review

The bands country origin: Finland

Metal albums reviews

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